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Month: January 2013

We have identified 3 new exciting ways in which you can support us. We believe that supporting a cause need not be boring. Read more

Come Dine With Me

Many of us have seen this show on TV. So, we are now requesting you as supporter to host a dinner at your house. Invite a few friends of yours and ask each one of them to donate a minimum of Rs 500. The money you gather on the day can then be donated to ECF. We have developed a simple kit that includes menu ideas, themes and invitation cards…something that will truly impress your friends.

All it takes is Rs 20!

In the next two months, we will launch the Twenty Rupee campaign across a few restaurants in Pune. We will be soon releasing a list of restaurants where this campaign will be launched. All you have to do is add Rs 20 to your bill when you are eating at one of the selected restaurants and the money will be donated to ECF. If you own or run a restaurant or know someone who does, who is interested in hosting the campaign please contact us. We will provide the restaurant venue with a kit that they can use.

Be an ECF ambassador

We often hear and read stories of violence against women. We feel like doing something about it but don’t know how, neither can we spare time for it. At ECF, we have an opportunity for you. We need your support to spread the word about the work ECF does. It can be done by sitting at your desk or whichever part of the world you are in. All it requires is 10 minutes of your time.

To know more about any of these options contact us at info@ecf.org.in. Our team will provide you with the required assistance.

These are men who deliver the Action for Equality Programme to the adolescent men in the communities. They are no ordinary trainers…they are mentors. They are expected to be a friend, coach, trainer and nothing short of a role model for the adolescent men. They are the link between community and the organisation. Though it is tough job we can vouch that it is the most exciting job.

ECF is working towards not just promoting the organisation but the approach of working with men to reduce violence and discrimination against women. We want to encourage more individuals and organisations to adopt this approach. Therefore, we need a strong communications manager, who will help us create awareness about the issue, about our work and develop an effective marketing/communciations strategy.

We are pleased to announce the BBG Pune Annual Charity Ball will be held at the Hyatt Regency, Pune on Saturday the 23rdFebruary, 2013. Over 250 CEO level business persons from over 100 international companies will come together for an evening of music, dance and entertainment. The idea as always is to have a fun filled evening and also support a deserving charity. Like last year, BBG Pune will be supporting Equal Community Foundation.

The event will be a truly royal affair and an occasion to meet the who’s who of Pune. Revellers would be able to delve into the mystique of tarot, dance the night away to jazz music, bid for amazing prizes in the auction and enter a British Pub Quiz; heart-pounding entertainment that everyone has come to expect from the BBG Ball!

As part of Hyatt Community Grants,a philanthropic program that empowers Hyatt associates to guide charitable giving, Hyatt Regency Pune announced on December 3 that it has awarded Equal Community Foundation with a $7500 grant to further the organization’s efforts in empowering young men to end violence and discrimination against women. The grant was given under the category of Personal advancement and health and wellness.

Hyatt Community Grants, a key component of Hyatt Thrive – Hyatt’s global corporate responsibility platform –encourages hotels around the world to identify and nominate local nonprofits for funding consideration through Hyatt Hotels Foundation. The program builds on Hyatt’s belief that no one better understands a community’s most pressing issues – and their solutions – that those that live and work there.

“Since beginning of 2012, we have been teaming up with Equal Community Foundation in supporting the organization’s work,” said Hemant Mehta, Executive Assistant Manager-F&B.. “We are fortunate that Hyatt Thrive gives us the means to identify and support their work, and we hope the people in Pune will help secure additional funding for Equal Community Foundation in the Facebook campaign – Vote.Give.Thrive., which runs through the end of the year.”

“Receiving this grant is a great honor, and we are thankful that Hyatt Regency Pune nominated our organization to be the recipient of this generous donation,” said William Muir, CEO, Equal Community Foundation “This funding goes a long way towards empowering men to end violence and discrimination against women, and we are looking forward to the chance to receive additional fund through support from people in Pune and abroad.”

We have identified 3 new exciting ways in which you can support us. We believe that supporting a cause need not be boring. Read more

Come Dine With Me

Many of us have seen this show – Come Dine With Me on TV. So, we are now requesting you as supporter to host a dinner at your house. Invite a few friends of yours and ask each one of them to donate a minimum of Rs 500. The money you gather on the day can then be donated to ECF. We have developed a simple kit that includes menu ideas, themes and invitation cards…something that will truly impress your friends.

Twenty Rupee campaign

In the next two months, we will launch this campaign across a few restaurants in Pune. We will be soon releasing a list of restaurants where this campaign will be launched. All you have to do is add Rs 20 to your bill when you are one of the selected restaurants and money will be donated to ECF. If you own or run a restaurant or know someone who does, please contact us. We will provide the restaurant venue with a kit that they can use.

Be an ECF campaigner

We need your support to spread the word about the work ECF does. It can be done by sitting at your desk. All it requires is 10 minutes of your time. Contact us to know more.

ECF is in the process of planning a national campaign for launch in March 2013. Our campaign will call for Indian men, women and children to ensure that men across India study and practice gender equitable behavior. The campaign principles are based on the evidence from our recent academic research that demonstrates that women in India will not be free from violence until men change their behaviour, and this behavior change starts in the community, in schools and in the media.

Watch the space for more information

Release of social sector research paper

Empowering Men to Empower Women is becoming increasingly well accepted, and popular but still in the nascent stage. There is a lack of research and evidence to demonstrate that empowering men as a positive resource in the women’s empowerment process reduces violence and discrimination against women and increases the resources available to empower women in their community.

ECF team conducted research by interviewing experts across India on best practices, trends and gaps when it comes to working with men to reduce violence and discrimination against women.

The sector research report will also enable ECF to:

(i)Increase confidence of stakeholders to adopt and invest in the EMEW approach

(ii)Promote Collaborative Efforts: Organisations with similar goals will be able to align their programmes to the strategy, and consequently share resources to increase efficiency and effectiveness

The research paper will be complete in March 2013

Publish AfE curriculum and other resources

In the next quarter, ECF will publish the 5th version of Action for Equality Programme curriculum. This curriculum has been designed and developed by ECF team members based on research and experience within the communities we work in. An internal team and stakeholder review will be done before publishing the curriculum.

In addition, we will be publishing a series of tools, methodologies and whitepapers that we have developed through implementation of Action for Equality Programme

Till date, over 250 volunteers have enrolled on the Alumni Programme. We know that practically this number will not be very high because of other priorities and circles of influence in the life of men. If we want to develop community leaders, then we should at least have more than 30% of the graduates to participate on regular basis. There are certain programme cycles when we have achieved this target but it isn’t consistent at this point.

Also, one of the major lessons learnt within this point is that at this stage, ‘empowering men’ aspect is under developed within the AP curriculum. We need to further develop modules and activities that empower women but also cater to development needs of adolescents so that they see the value of it, participate in it and benefit from it.

The model of the Alumni Programme needs to be improved further to:

(i)Increase the number of graduates who enrol to become volunteers.

(ii)Reduce the dropout rate amongst current volunteers.

(iii)Convert active participation into sustained leadership

The team is currently working on addressing these three points.

Need to reduce cost per beneficiary

In the next 8-10 months, this will be one of the top priorities of our team. We focus on maintaining high quality standards when it comes to design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Action for Equality Programme. As it is an action – research programme, the amount of resources we spend on the programme are also high. Based on the experience of about three years and feedback from a few stakeholders, we recognise that we need to reduce the cost per beneficiary. The main reasons for that being:

(i)For the EMEW (Empowering Men to Empower Men) approach to reach its potential we need to have programmes like AfE that can be easily replicated. Cost and resources required to implement these programme become a major deciding factor in whether the programme will be adopted or not.

(ii)In future, we aim to scale Action for Equality or a version of it nationally. If the programme is expensive, it reduces feasibility for it to be replicated.

(iii)The cost of AfE in comparison to the other (similar or education related) programmes is much higher, making it even more difficult to identify partners and investors.

As an organisation, we are at a stage where the programme is running smoothly. We are continuously learning from the field. We can afford to spend time on developing and testing solutions without letting the operations or the quality of the programme get affected drastically and reduce the cost per beneficiaries.

Need to improve monitoring and evaluation framework

As a part of outcome assessment, interviewing mothers or women associated with the graduates has been the only method adopted by us. Based on the information provided by women who participate in the outcome assessment interviews, we attribute the change in men to Action for Equality Programme. But, the fact is that there can be and are more factors influencing this behaviour change. So, this attribution is not always right. The method of data collection from outcome assessment interviews is good for anecdotal evidence but is weak in terms of quantitative analysis.

There are some other gaps in the monitoring and evaluation framework as mentioned below:

(i)The monitoring data from Alumni Programme is not effectively captured

(ii)The framework doesn’t form a clear connection between input, output and outcome indicators. As a result, triangulation of data is not possible

(iii)The monitoring data is captured but not being analysed effectively

The team working on monitoring and evaluation will work on addressing the challenges mentioned above to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation framework. A staged approach will be taken as per the points given below:

(i)Focus on gathering ‘monitoring data’ and develop tools to analyse it over the next 6 months

(ii)Continue to conduct interviews with a sample size of 10-15 women per cycle to gather anecdotal evidence

(iii)Conduct a series of community engagement activities parallel to capturing monitoring data

(iv)Based on community engagement conduct influence mapping exercise

(v)Develop indicators based on stakeholder feedback

(vi)Develop M&E framework and tools that includes a tested solutions to fill the gaps mentioned above.